5/31/2017 - The professional baseball franchise, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is a member of the West Expand

5/31/2017 - The professional baseball franchise, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is a member of the West Division of the American League (AL). The team was established in 1961 and has been based Angels Stadium of Anaheim since 1966 in Anaheim, California. The Los Angeles Angels has some of the leagues most popular players and deadliest […]
The post Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – Some Facts Maybe You Don’t Know appeared first on Monkey with a Halo. Collapse

1/29/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - “Don’t be fooled by the rock pile that Expand

1/29/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - “Don’t be fooled by the rock pile that I’ve got! I’m still, I’m still C.J. on the block!” – Alternative J-Lo LyricsOn January 19th, 2017, news broke out of Caracas, Venezuela, via Efrain Zavarce on Twitter, that free agent infielder Luis Valbuena was on the verge of signing with the Angels on a multi-year deal.Days passed before the signing was officially confirmed with the two sides agreeing to a 2-year, $14.5M deal with a mutual option, per Jeff Fletcher, worth an additional $8.5M-$10M (based on PA’s) for a potential total contract of 3 years, $23M.It was initially thought that Valbuena would act as a platoon partner to hitters like Danny Espinosa and Yunel Escobar but shortly after the signing announcement GM Billy Eppler dropped a small bombshell, declaring that Luis would receive bats at 1B in 2017.Scene: C.J. Cron walks into his new clubhouse, “…. (Record scratch screech) …. You’re probably wondering how I got here?”If Collapse

1/10/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer -First of all let me start off by saying that Expand

1/10/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer -First of all let me start off by saying that the odds of the Angels interest level in Jose Bautista, much less signing him, are pretty low. This is simply a test case to identify any possible advantages and disadvantages his signing would bring to the Halos.To start the conversation Billy Eppler would have to find a positional home for Bautista. The Angels are almost certainly not going to move a premier defender like Kole Calhoun out of right field and, based on Eppler’s early offseason strike in the trade market, Maybin seems set in left field and is likely to become our leadoff hitter.Jose has not played third base in a long time and frankly Escobar’s bat is also valuable at the top of the lineup (likely the 2-hole) so the Angels probably do not want to downgrade even more defensively at third base despite the value of Bautista’s bat in the middle of the order.This really only leaves first base and designated hitter and we know Collapse

12/26/2016 - The following is a transcript of conversations Scott Allen from AngelsWin.com had with Chris Expand

12/26/2016 - The following is a transcript of conversations Scott Allen from AngelsWin.com had with Chris O'Grady before the publication of his top prospect profile. Scott Allen: Hey Chris! Congratulations, you've made it onto the AngelsWin.com Top 30 Prospects. I caught a couple of games after you moved to the rotation. Guys had a hard time squaring you up. Do you know if the Angels plan on keeping you as a starter?Chris O'Grady: Hey Scott. What number did I come in at?!? It went great moving into the rotation. Honestly, I haven't heard anything about next year, but I assume I'll start. I haven't gotten any type of big league invite for camp, so I'm hoping for that. Scott Allen: You came in at #24. The Angels seem short-handed on situational lefties and long relievers, it seems like they'd give you a look. I was a bit surprised to see you go un-selected in the Rule 5 Draft. Chris O'Grady: I like the rotation and bullpen, Collapse

4/30/2017 - Just about everything from the 2016 season could be viewed as a disaster for the Arizona Expand

4/30/2017 - Just about everything from the 2016 season could be viewed as a disaster for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Looking back now, it was probably a bit of foreshadowing when outfielder — and spark plug — A.J. Pollock went down with an elbow injury on the eve of the regular season. Instead of taking a step forward from […]
The post The Arizona Diamondbacks Find the Players They Need appeared first on Monkey with a Halo. Collapse

1/13/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, Part VIII here, Part IX here, Part X here, Part XI here, and Part XII here.Let me pose a question to you the fans: Did the disaster of the 2016 season give you digestive problems such as nausea, loss of appetite, motion sickness, or even pain?If you said yes, please let me recommend, for you and the Angels, a healthy dose of ginger in the 2017 season.Our favorite redheaded right fielder will return for another season of Gold Glove-caliber defense and an incrementally improved offensive profile to hit in the middle of Mike Scioscia’s lineup.Kole, in 2017, will be entering his fourth year of team control and his second year of arbitration control as a Super Two player (meaning instead of three years of arbitration he receives four years). Calhoun, per Collapse

12/22/2016 - By Rob Goldman, AngelsWin.com Historical Writer - When I look back on my career, I think Expand

12/22/2016 - By Rob Goldman, AngelsWin.com Historical Writer - When I look back on my career, I think about how many Hall of Fame players I was lucky to come in contact with. The one I appreciate most is my first hitting coach, Rod Carew. A legend in his own right, Rod was able to continue his excellence off the field as he articulated the finer points of hitting to a bunch of rookies in 1993.Sometimes, because their talent is innate rather than crafted from the toils of extra work and frustration, a lot of superstars often don’t appreciate the average guy who struggles just to achieve respectability. Rod Carew was different in this way. I think he always held the belief that anyone could achieve exceptional talent if he understood and worked hard enough at the fundamentals of hitting. As a hitting coach, he always had a great rapport with players, especially those who were really willing to be one of his disciples. To me, it showed he cared about us and I really appreciated that quality in Collapse

12/19/2016 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, and Part VII here.Billy Eppler has made defense his first priority since taking the helm as general manager of the Angels and the cornerstone of that priority has been and will continue to be Andrelton Simmons, arguably the finest defensive player in Major League baseball.Simmons is, of course, under contract for the next four seasons at a very affordable $8.286MM AAV per season with a total salary of $47MM spread out over those controlled years. These cost-controlled seasons happily coincide with the remainder of Mike Trout’s contract.Following the concept of “it’s not what you’ve done, but what have you done for me lately?” Andrelton has, over the last three seasons, averaged a bit over 2.7 WAR per year. You can of course argue the defensive value component of WAR but there is Collapse

12/15/2016 - By Jason Sinner, AngelsWin.com Staff Reporter - So this is sort of a crude comp to the other Expand

12/15/2016 - By Jason Sinner, AngelsWin.com Staff Reporter - So this is sort of a crude comp to the other bottom tier farm systems as ranked by mlb.com. I didn't feel like taking the time to include BA or BP. MLB does a top thirty and frankly, I tend to disagree with their list more than most (they don't even have Hermosillo, Duensing, Chris Rodriguez, or Paredes on the list. They have Meyer 11th and they still have Baldoquin on there at 22nd. They also have Jewell 14th, Hinshaw 16th, Julio Garcia at 17th (who?) and Jesus Castillo at 29th.) Suffice to say, there isn't much depth in the understanding or evaluation of our system. (BA has a much better list imo - more in line with what AW has with Rodriguez 8th and Middleton 9th. They actually took some time to look at the players)Having said that, most die hard fans for any team would disagree with the lists compiled on behalf of their favorite franchise. MLB gives each player an overall grade Collapse

2/9/2017 - Dear Angels fans: This will be our last post from Blogger, so from this point forward all of our Expand

2/9/2017 - Dear Angels fans: This will be our last post from Blogger, so from this point forward all of our articles will be published on AngelsWin.com. If you had our blog bookmarked, please just bookmark http://angelswin.com/ or http://thesportsdaily.com/angels-win/. Both will bring you to the same place and it's where you can find all of our content going forward. We will not fully sunset this blog, though all of our past articles have been moved over to our new website. We're excited about this move as The Sports Daily blog network has talented authors who provide quality content on a daily basis. This also expands our content to the east coast as NESN, the popular New England based network owns the network we now call home. Our forum URL has not changed and can always be found here if you do not have it bookmarked. Still today, AngelsWin.com boasts the largest Angels based fan community on the net and our articles are read by not only the fans, but the media, players Collapse

1/12/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - I will preface this article by stating Expand

1/12/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - I will preface this article by stating that, in the past, I have not been a fan of signing the Orioles former rising star, he just seemed to be missing key components, such as pitch framing ability, good career offensive numbers against RHP, and the previous Tommy John Surgery on his throwing arm gave me concerns about his durability.However if you look deeper at his numbers and his performances in 2015 and 2016, you see the possible makings of a trend that may be enticing to Billy Eppler and the 2017 Angels squad.First let us examine Matt’s defensive numbers as seen in the table below:There are a couple of interesting items to talk about here.Matt’s pitch framing was actually good earlier in his career (2010-2012) but fell off in recent years. It is possible that he could work on this part of his game and improve but he will likely never be an elite pitch framer. He probably will not hurt a team too dramatically in this Collapse

1/6/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, Part VIII here, Part IX here, Part X here, and Part XI here.If you have come here today to read about who will play center field for the Angels in 2017 I’ll save you the suspense: MIKE TROUT! (To be frank you should know this already by the way)Also, rather than bore you with a 10,000 word essay on how freaking awesome our Hall of Fame center fielder is I’d like to borrow the words of Fred R. Barnard who once said, “A picture is worth ten thousand words.”Enjoy.Mike’s First Career HitTrout’s First Career Home RunMike’s First Career Grand Slam Off Of Detroit’s Rick PorcelloTrout’s 2nd Career Grand Slam Off Of A Wicked Chris Sale ChangeupMike’s 3rd Career Grand Slam Off Of The Rangers Spencer PattonTrout’s 4th Career Grand Slam Off Of The Twins A.J. AchterPerhaps You Collapse

1/2/2017 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, Part VIII here, Part IX here, and Part X here.Billy Eppler, just like his predecessor, struck early in the offseason this November, acquiring the Angels left field solution for 2017 by trading for OF Cameron Maybin from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for RHR Victor Alcantara.Initially a lot of fans were lukewarm to the deal and not particularly dazzled by the pickup but hindsight being 20/20 it may prove to be a pretty savvy move by our new GM. Let me explain why.First of all, per Jeff Fletcher’s initial report on the trade, Maybin said that Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, in 2015, helped him adjust his mechanics and, in Maybin’s words, “… he pretty much changed my career”.Perhaps more importantly you can see that change in Cameron’s batted ball Collapse

12/27/2016 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, Part VIII here, and Part IX, here.Continuing the positional roundtable discussion, let us talk about the Angels current catching situation.When AngelsWin.com released the Primer Introduction it was my heavy suspicion that the Angels would sign or trade for a veteran catcher and trade one of Carlos Perez and Jett Bandy.To be honest the Bandy trade caught the author off guard as he seemed to be a good choice to be the team’s backup catcher. Here Eppler decided to pull off a “two birds, one stone” approach again by acquiring right-handed hitting catcher Martin Maldonado and right-handed pitcher Drew Gagnon from the Brewers in exchange for Jett.Despite the loss of Bandy, it is understandable why Billy went this route because it does provide a capable veteran Collapse

12/25/2016 - By David Saltzer, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - The older I get, the more important hope Expand

12/25/2016 - By David Saltzer, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - The older I get, the more important hope seems to be. With three sons, I have to have hope that they will live better and greater lives than I did. And, I want to leave the world a better place so that they have every opportunity to provide better lives for their future children, my future grandchildren.Baseball fans live on hope. All winter long they dream of the spring to come. They read about trades and free agent signings, looking for that one piece to put their team over the top. All spring, they watch the games to see what will become of their dreams. They learn the names of rookies and have endless arguments over the most minor of position battles. In summer, their dreams play out nightly with ebbs and flows that span the season. They live and die with series wins and player injuries. And, if all works out, their dreams come true in the fall, when they get to watch their dreams play out on the grandest stage of all.So it Collapse

12/22/2016 - By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer - Author’s Note: If you missed the previous installments you can find Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, Part IV here, Part V here, Part VI here, Part VII here, and Part VIII here.So let us talk about Yunel Escobar.First of all he is not a great baserunner, nor a base stealer. He just doesn’t add much value there if any.In regards to his defensive ability, as Angelswin.com member ‘Dochalo’ said, here, “I think defense bores him and he loses focus.”At one point in time Escobar was a good defensive shortstop but his move to third base has been lackluster at best and blundering at its worst. Doc is probably correct.However, we should note one thing regarding his defense as seen in the two graphs, below, contrasting a really good defensive third baseman and Yunel:Clearly Arenado has superior range but the interesting thing to note is how confined Escobar is to the third base line.This has to be due, in part, to the Simmons Collapse

Stay current with Los Angeles Angels news, players, and events. Read blogs, get up-to-the-minute media coverage, and all of the very BEST Angels news. We are not an authorized affiliate of the MLB or any of it's member institutions.